If you look at the reps of all of your nodes, you probably already realize that rep has at least
as much to do with quirks of Monastery as with the quality of the node, anyway.

That is a) true and b) funny. It shows that complex rules ca arise
from some simple rules. Some things that come to my mind are
that you get better rep when you posted early (thus appearing near
the top of the answers) which rewards you for reading often and typing fast.

just thinking...aargh, i just lost an XP for the first time ... cruel world ;-)